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Friday's action in the OHL

Brandon Foote's Ontario Hockey League career is off to a stellar start, and his play just might be the spark the Brampton Battalion need to overcome their slow start.

The rookie goaltender from Scarborough, Ont., made 23 saves to earn his second shutout of the season as Brampton won its third game in a row, blanking the Mississauga-St. Michael's Majors 1-0 on Friday night.

"It's a good feeling," said Foote, who posted his fifth win against a single loss in seven games this season. "The guys did a great job in front of me and they kept a lot of the shots to the outside. That made my job easy."

Russian import Evgeny Grachev scored the only goal of the game - his second goal of the season - just before the 12-minute mark of the third period.

The Battalion (5-6-0-0) are now within three points of the Central Division-leading Barrie Colts after slipping to the bottom of the division with four straight losses in early October.

At Mississauga, Ont., it was the second time in as many games that the St. Michael's Majors (5-3-0-0) were shut out on home ice. Mississauga has gone 159 minutes and 21 seconds without scoring a goal at home.

St. Michael's Majors netminder Chris Carrozzi, who came into the game as the second leading goalie in the OHL with a 2.10 goals-against average, stopped 33 of 34 shots.

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Whalers 5, IceDogs 4

At Plymouth, Mich., Ryan Hayes scored with less than three minutes remaining as the Whalers edged Niagara.

Terry Chris had a hat trick and Vern Cooper also scored for Plymouth (4-5-1-0).

Chris DeSousa had a pair, while Dylan MacEachern and Marco Insam added goals for the IceDogs (3-5-1-3).